Due to environmental and noise considerations, there has been an increased effort in those industries which utilize fans to reduce the amount of noise produced by the fans.
One effort aimed at reducing fan noise is to operate the axial flow fans at lower tip speeds thereby reducing noise output which improves the surrounding environment. One problem encountered, however, is that decreasing the tip speed of the fan also decreases the ability of the fan to perform work. By decreasing the tip speed of the fan, work is decreased by the square of the revolutions per minute (RPM). A fan that can produce a total pressure of 1" at a tip speed of 12,000 feet per minute (FPM) can only produce 0.25" total pressure at a tip speed of 6,000 FPM.
Presently, there is no known fan that reduces noise without significantly decreasing the ability to perform work.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fan blade that reduces noise.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fan blade that produces greater capability for performing more work at slower tip speeds.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a width extender for a fan blade which is adaptable to the trailing edge of a fan blade.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious upon further investigation.